May 6th, 2011 @ St. Petersburg, Russia
There is a night-shelter at the ten-minute bus trip from the office of “Put Domoi.” The shelter is the distribution point of the magazine too.
As soon as Arkady opened the door, pictures of gently-colored flowers caught my eyes. He told me that all those beautiful pictures were drawn by one of the vendors, Lena. Those subtle colors tell me that she must be having a sensitive and fragile heart. I crave for meeting her without knowing it would happen within a few minutes.
Frist, however, a street poet, Michel, appeared at the distribution point. Arkady asked him to read out his poet for us.

Open up the borders!
Mix up the people!
We are men! We are birds!
We are Mother Nature’s children!
As though we are sitting in tanks, we don’t see one another,
Trapped now in the confines of threat and fear.

His shout from the bottom of his soul was really moved our hearts. After the silence, Arkady just said “Brilliant” and so did I.
As enjoying tea together, a long black-haired lady came into the room. She herself was an artist who had drawn the wall pictures. I couldn’t help saying to Lena, “As soon as I saw your work, I imagined the drawer was warm—hearted,” and her cheeks blushed shyly.
After a few minutes’ absence, Lena came back to the room with a paper in her hand---it was her work with her message and signature. “Wow…,” without knowing I was whispering. How many times did I say to her, the only Russian word I know, “Spasiba (Thank you).”? I got my life-long treasure here in St. Petersburg.